Re: Historic Hollywood Sites
Posted: December 16th, 2012, 3:44 pm
It's Christmastime 1940 in the City of Angels. The War was still a year away and the city had been pulling itself out of the Depression. Hollywood, aviation and manufacturing were the big home-town industries. The city had taken in almost a million newcomers in the years since the Depression began, many of those newcomers refugees from the Dust Bowl and the mid-west. They often arrived with just what they had packed in their cars and with little to no savings.
But the City of Angels often seemed like the promised land when you read it about it in or saw pictures of it in the newspapers and magazines of the day. It was a place where you could reinvent yourself, forge a new life and garner a slice of the American dream. Thousands found in those articles and pictures (and word of mouth), their second chance at life and took it, even though it meant packing up the family and leaving all that you had ever known for a life away from loved ones and friends.
It was the largest exodus of people since the end of the Civil War and for many the destination was California, the golden state of hopes and dreams and Los Angeles the preferred city of choice.
In this photo, Santa has arrived at the Christmas parade in downtown Los Angeles aboard a rocket ship that looks like Santa might have rolled it from Buck Rogers or perhaps won it in a late night poker game with the celluloid space ranger.
Surrounded by a bevy of beauties, Santa is bringing holiday cheer to all.
In the background is a drug store and the famed Examiner building. Before Julia Morgan designed Xanadu, OOPS!, San Simeon for William Randolph Hearst, she designed this Mission-style home for journalism for the newspaper magnate. He was so happy with her work, she became his go-to architect.
Located at Broadway and 11th, the Examiner's (then the Hearld-Express) newsroom was dominated by the only female big city editor in the country, the no-nonsense,Aggie Underwood.
Aggie had gotten her start in the world of journalism when she asked her husband to buy her a pair of silk stockings and he refused. She threatened to find a job and her forbade her to do that. They fought and Aggie took a job as temp switchboard operator at the old Los Angeles Record.
She found herself entranced by the world of journalism. Thanks to the editor of the Woman's section, Gertrude Price (pen name Cynthia Grey), Aggie went from the switchboard to reporting.
In 1935, she went to work for Hearst. She covered the sensational stories of the day and had an affinity for female murderers and female victims. She was the first reporter on the scene when the police discovered the body of Elizabeth Short, aka the Black Dahlia. Her coverage of the case played a big role in her promotion to City Editor.
She also had an affinity for reporters. She ruled the City Desk with a mixture of maternal wisdom and hard-boiled tenacity. She kept both a baseball bat (used to make her point with rowdy reporters when necessary) and a bottle of scotch in her desk. On hot Friday afternoons, she ordered cases of cold beer be brought to the newsroom to the delight of her rowdy reporters.
She held the position for 17 and a half years and chose to retire in 1968 when the union news reporters went on strike. Even though she was by then managing editor, she chose retirement rather than cross "her boys" who were on strike.
Aggie died of a heart attack in 1984.
But the City of Angels often seemed like the promised land when you read it about it in or saw pictures of it in the newspapers and magazines of the day. It was a place where you could reinvent yourself, forge a new life and garner a slice of the American dream. Thousands found in those articles and pictures (and word of mouth), their second chance at life and took it, even though it meant packing up the family and leaving all that you had ever known for a life away from loved ones and friends.
It was the largest exodus of people since the end of the Civil War and for many the destination was California, the golden state of hopes and dreams and Los Angeles the preferred city of choice.
In this photo, Santa has arrived at the Christmas parade in downtown Los Angeles aboard a rocket ship that looks like Santa might have rolled it from Buck Rogers or perhaps won it in a late night poker game with the celluloid space ranger.
Surrounded by a bevy of beauties, Santa is bringing holiday cheer to all.
In the background is a drug store and the famed Examiner building. Before Julia Morgan designed Xanadu, OOPS!, San Simeon for William Randolph Hearst, she designed this Mission-style home for journalism for the newspaper magnate. He was so happy with her work, she became his go-to architect.
Located at Broadway and 11th, the Examiner's (then the Hearld-Express) newsroom was dominated by the only female big city editor in the country, the no-nonsense,Aggie Underwood.
Aggie had gotten her start in the world of journalism when she asked her husband to buy her a pair of silk stockings and he refused. She threatened to find a job and her forbade her to do that. They fought and Aggie took a job as temp switchboard operator at the old Los Angeles Record.
She found herself entranced by the world of journalism. Thanks to the editor of the Woman's section, Gertrude Price (pen name Cynthia Grey), Aggie went from the switchboard to reporting.
In 1935, she went to work for Hearst. She covered the sensational stories of the day and had an affinity for female murderers and female victims. She was the first reporter on the scene when the police discovered the body of Elizabeth Short, aka the Black Dahlia. Her coverage of the case played a big role in her promotion to City Editor.
She also had an affinity for reporters. She ruled the City Desk with a mixture of maternal wisdom and hard-boiled tenacity. She kept both a baseball bat (used to make her point with rowdy reporters when necessary) and a bottle of scotch in her desk. On hot Friday afternoons, she ordered cases of cold beer be brought to the newsroom to the delight of her rowdy reporters.
She held the position for 17 and a half years and chose to retire in 1968 when the union news reporters went on strike. Even though she was by then managing editor, she chose retirement rather than cross "her boys" who were on strike.
Aggie died of a heart attack in 1984.